King County Metro added nine bus routes serving Bellevue neighborhoods on Aug. 29, giving riders more evening, overnight and weekend options. The agency's Week Without Driving campaign, running through Thursday, Oct. 8, encourages residents to try the new service.

The expansion added more than 3,000 weekly trips across King County, according to King County Metro. Several changes directly serve Bellevue.

New Route 220 connects Eastgate and downtown Bellevue through Bellevue College, Lake Hills and East Main station. It runs every 15 minutes on weekdays and every 30 minutes on weekends.

Route 270 links downtown Bellevue to the University District via Bellevue Way and SR-520 on the same frequency, according to an analysis by Seattle Transit Blog. Route 556, between Issaquah and Bellevue, now runs all day with service every 15 minutes during daytime hours, seven days a week.

For late-night riders, new Route 547 provides overnight service between Redmond and downtown Seattle every 30 minutes from midnight to 4:30 a.m. The route stops near 2 Line stations including Spring District, Bel-Red and Overlake Village, though riders may need a short walk between the bus stop and station platform.

Route 111, connecting Renton and South Bellevue Station, expanded to all-day, all-week service with earlier morning and later evening trips.

Metro General Manager Michelle Allison said the expanded hours matter for workers outside the typical office schedule. "You need service that connects you to where you want to go, and that is not always 9-to-5," Allison said in an Oct. 2 blog post promoting the campaign. "If you're a shift worker, if you're someone who's working at the airport or the hotel industry or the hospitals … you want to have available transit."

The campaign encourages residents to swap car trips for buses, walking and biking through Oct. 8. King County Metro co-sponsors the effort alongside more than 800 organizations across the U.S., Canada and Australia. Events include bus ride-alongs, walking and biking meetups and transportation bingo.

Seattle disability advocate Anna Zivarts, founder of the Nondrivers Alliance, launched the campaign in 2021. A third of people in the U.S. do not drive because of age, disability or cost, according to Metro.

Residents can sign up at weekwithoutdriving.org and share their experience using #WeekWithoutDriving.